Solfege is a great system that we use as singers and as teachers to help students usually with learning how to sing when they’re younger. We also have the Kodaly hand signs that we can use. They kind of pair and kinesthetic aspects to learning how to sing and as well as singing the right notes. Then we also really use solfege in the teaching of sight singing and learning sizing.

So when we’re singing, I like to use moveable DO, which means that no matter what key that we’re in, DO is always the home note of that key. So if we were in C major, DO would be C, if we were in G major DO would be G.

So follow the hand signs for each note below:

 

The spots that you want to be really careful, with are between MI and FA, right in TI and DO, those are the natural half steps in a major scale. And while you can sight singing in a minor scale, definitely you want to start with the easy major scale. You want to get that major scale in your ear, so that at any time, if someone gave you a random note, he’d be able to start with that note on DO. Using the tools of learning the solfege and also learning the hand signs, you will be able to sing a major scale from anywhere. This is a really important skill and it’s not extremely difficult to develop, but it’s also not super easy. It does take work. It does take repetitive singing on this scale.

So now we’re gonna do a vocal warmup, using this same exercise, but we’re going to do it in time.

DO – DO – RE – DO

DO – RE – MI – RE – DO

DO – RE – MI – FA – MI – RE – DO

DO – RE – MI – FA – SO – FA – MI – RE – DO

DO – RE – MI – FA – SO – LA – SO – FA – MI – RE – DO

DO – RE – MI – FA – SO – LA – TI – DO – TI – LA – SO – FA – MI – RE – DO

It’s really good to practice doing this in both hands. You’ll feel in your non-dominant hand that it’s definitely a lot harder.

Do these do this over and over again. When I was learning how to do this, I would speak it, I would sing it. I would also write it. Practice singing solfege with the hand signs and you’ll be able to master it in no time.